1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to steam ironing machines and particularly to a steam ironing household appliance.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are known steam irons which are provided with means capable of delivering a steam flow at a suitable temperature during the ironing of clothes or the like placed on an associated board, the steam flowing out through a plurality of holes provided in the ironing plate. The delivered steam is obviously in direct contact with the cloth to be ironed, which simultaneously is subjected both to the pressing and sliding action exerted by the smooth working surface of the steam iron and to the wetting and heating action exerted by the steam. In a sense, this situation has been recommended since conventional cloth ironing requires wetting of the clothes before the steam iron is pressed over the clothes, so that the ironing operation can be better and easily performed. However, this conventional ironing operation has the disadvantage that, once the clothes are ironed, they generally retain a certain amount of moisture, with the result that after the ironing operation the clothes undergo so-called "recovery", with the result that the ironing does not turn out very well. The clothes partially recover their initial configuration so that the creases and folds that the ironing operation was intended to relieve are reformed, of course to a lesser extent.
It is apparent that in this conventional ironing operation was lacking with regard to drying of the ironed clothes. Therefore, industrial or commercial type ironing machines have been proposed to permit the full drying of the ironed clothes after steam ironing by means of suction removal of the residual moisture. These machines are very heavy and cumbersome since they present a rigid assembly comprising the ironing board and the associated means, such as the base, the steam generator and the aspirator. These machines usually are used in laundries and dry cleaning shops. Conversely, the conventional appliances for household ironing, while being provided with steam capability in addition to the conventional electric ironing capability, cannot perform drying by suction of the residual moisture in the clothes.